Posts Tagged Hip Hop

Ana Tijoux has been in the hip hop game for a long time, but I caught onto her as just about everyone else did, when she collaborated with Mexican singer Julieta Venegas back in 2007. I loved her work immediately. Though the themes of her solo albums have all been really different – from super introspective to super global – I continue to be impressed and surprised with her music. I was really excited about her new album, and having the chance to listen to it over the last few weeks, I can tell you that it does not disappoint. Ana brings back her sick rhymes and ...

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Ana Tijoux has been in the hip hop game for a long time, but I caught onto her as just about everyone else did, when she ...

If you remember, Vero’s post about the Grammy award-winning song “Royals” kinda blew up the Interwebs by pointing out the cognitive flaw in Lorde’s cultural critique of music, youth, and consumer culture.

Vero rightly pointed out something that didn’t sit well with me either. The concern I shared with Vero was that while the lyrics serve as a valid critique of the excessive consumerism in hip hop (and the entire music industry, really), for casual listeners, they run the danger of becoming just a racialized backhanded indictment. Lorde’s “Royals” definitely made me wince in places even though I kind of liked the song in a fairly meh music season of 2013 (before King Bey blew everything up and ...

If you remember, Vero’s post about the Grammy award-winning song “Royals” kinda blew up the Interwebs by pointing out the cognitive flaw in Lorde’s cultural critique of music, youth, and consumer culture.

Yesterday, I watched my friends Marc Lamont Hill and Brittney Cooper do this HuffPost Live segment entitled “Do ‘Hood Sites’ Normalize Black Stereotypes?” The conversation was mostly about the infamous WorldStarHipHop.com and their penchant for posting videos of black youth engaged in violence toward one another. These videos generate thousands upon thousands of hits, are circulated widely, and become entertainment for many. The discussion was about whether or not the distribution and popularity of these videos help to perpetuate stereotypes that are heaped onto blackness.

On that particular question, I think there’s a “yes, but…” These videos don’t help combat the stereotypes, but they would exist even without WorldStar. Getting rid of the video hosting site would not end the violence ...

Yesterday, I watched my friends Marc Lamont Hill and Brittney Cooper do this HuffPost Live segment entitled “Do ‘Hood Sites’ Normalize Black Stereotypes?” The conversation was mostly about the infamous WorldStarHipHop.com and their penchant for posting videos ...

Among other things, I’ve identified as a hip hop feminist. The term does the job of expressing my engagement in a culture of commodified blackness. I’ve also talked here about how hood feminism resonated with me. But neither term truly speaks to my inner feminist hoochie; nor explains the complex, sex-positive, financially ambitious, and self-affirming components of my feminism. But through these lens, I’ve been able to identify other spaces that do. Trap music is one of them. It’s easy to get caught up in the problematic elements of drug dealing and violence in communities of color, themes that are prevalent in trap music, but there is more than meets the eye.

Among other things, I’ve identified as a hip hop feminist. The term does the job of expressing my engagement in a culture of commodified blackness. I’ve also talked here about how hood feminism resonated ...

There is so much power in a pen (or a keyboard). Creating language to describe our lived experience is so transcending, turning abstract principles into discourse. I was reminded of this when I first heard about hood feminism. Blogger Jamie defines the parameters of her own existence and the ways in which she felt out of place in feminist spaces. She says:

“While Big Name Feminists are debating The End of Men, women on the margins–women like me–are sleeping at train stations and working double shifts for paltry wages. They are buying school supplies with rent money. They are fighting for citizenship because they aren’t the ‘right kind of immigrants.'”

This is reflective of the concerns that many women of ...

There is so much power in a pen (or a keyboard). Creating language to describe our lived experience is so transcending, turning abstract principles into discourse. I was reminded of this when I first heard about